I would like to show off a new machine designed to manufacture Bee Boxes.
I am the manufacturer, so if the powers that be...decide that I should be in another forum or such, please redirect me.
To introduce myself, My company is Woodman Engineering in Redding Ca. My main goal in life is to design and build automated production machinery.
A local bee keeper mentioned that they wanted something better than what they had. I had been wanting to build a machine for some time, to machine the box joint, rack shelf (3/8 rabet), and Scalloped hand hold from pre sized box panels.
Our first machine has been running for just under a year. Running as needed, has produced about 30,000 Boxes.
Daily production can be as high as 1000 boxes per day. Future goals are to be at 1400 to 1500 BOXES per 8 hour shift.
I would like to see that. You can post pictures here or link to where they are posted. One of my students installs signs and ATM machines. He made a set of computer controlled table saws that cut everything. Now his garage is full of hives, frames and extracting equipment. A year ago he had not seen a beehive.
Yes I have seen that machine. I would kill to have it to restore.
The best thing about my machine is that the panels are held square and true while being cut at both ends at once. It does not rely on the precut dimension of the panels for the depth of the box joint fingers. Hence the interior dimensions are going to be true and to size.
This most defiantly is a high production machine made for the producers of bee boxes that make them 24/7.
The operator just needs to fill the hopper and the machine will continue to run. One man is being used to run the machine, at a reduced rate.
Hey if a guy could sale 30K boxes in a year this would be the machine to buy. What about a machine for frame pieces?
Thanks for the show and tell,:applause:
Ron Householder
We use two 7 1/2 HP motors for the dado heads, two 3 hp motors for the rabbet and hand hold. Plus there is a small DC motor to move the rabbet cutter.
The load on the dado heads while they are cutting is so close to idle draw that we could use 5 hp motors.
The machine is controlled by a logic computer to sequence the operations and maintain correct cycling of the componants. Hey...Its just fun to watch do its thing.
Wow that's a great looking machine. The biggest one I ever used was an old ammunition box machine, huge casting with two vertical arbors which cut the finger joints and slightly trimmed to length. The carriage would hold twenty pieces at once. Made a HECK of a lot more noise than yours. Looks like the dust collection is well set up too that's a lot of chips from the joints rabbet and handhold. I counted about 5 seconds for the piece so 1000 per day is not undoable. Thanks for showing your machine you have a lot of R & D in it I think.
How about the tooling cost after just machining one days worth??? I been a machinist for 20 yrs and i know down time for any reason and tooling is killer when it comes to machines!...Good Luck!!
The rate the machine was running at the time the video was taken was about one panel every 12 sec(cycle time). That equals 560 BOXES in 8hrs. (see description at bottom of video)
The owner has the machine tuned back so one man can run it. He stacks about 15 panels on the infeed, then restacks at the out feed. If it was running at 7 secs you would need two people, and they would have an easy day. We had this machine running at 6.5 seconds, for a short time, then the operator tuned it down. That equals about 960 boxes per day. I guaranteed my first machine to run at one panel every 15 seconds. Future machines will surpass 1200 boxes per day. Two person crew.
I spent about 9 months on the computer designing this one. I have been designing everything in Solidworks 3D cad for over 12 years.
Honeybeekeeper,
Ya. I'm a machinist too. Since 1974.
You are right. You cannot ignore tooling cost!
The dado blades are Freud. Nice blades.
The first set is still on the machine. I inspected them about 2 weeks ago. The owner has run about 30,000 Boxes and they are still in good shape. I did see one chipped tooth there may be a couple more.
The machine required 13 sets of dados to get 10 sets at 1"(Spacers and such). I bored all of them to 1.250 inches for the larger arbor.
I did try to talk the owner into using one piece cutters as it would make setup so much easier, and future machines will be equiped as such. Tooling cost is seperate. Better figure on about $1800 to equip this machine. I built the hand hold cutter and 2, 3/8 offset dados. The rabbet cutter is a 4" Amada. None of the cutters have been to the sharpener yet. The cutters will have a good long life.
Resetting the machine for different panels takes about 15 minutes. Move a pin for the hieght size. Move the dado cutters in or out for the width. Readjust the infeed guides.
This machine can be used to make other boxes as well. Gift boxes, Product cases. Lots of possibilities. No reason the rabbet cutter can't changed and be used to make a groove for a bottom panel. But at the risk of getting off topic, the BEE BOX was what this machine was designed to make.
How is your honey straw machine? Is that the right name?
Hello everyone,
Wow! It has been over a year since I shared the Bee Box Machine. The responce has been incredible.
This is not a machine that everyone needs, or one that you make at the rate of one a week. But 5 have been sold.
I hope to display the machine at an as yet undetermined bee conference.
Thanks so much to all for your interest.
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